On a golden autumn afternoon in the New Forest, we were getting off our hired bikes for a breather when a pig with several rings through its nose mooched out from behind some parked cars. Then a man emerged from the woods carrying a wicker basket containing ceps and something that looked like a sponge. It was a brain fungus: the mushroom man told us it could be cooked in batter.

The New Forest is a delight for foodies of all descriptions. The pig was there for the acorns – benefiting from commoners' ancient rights to let their pigs forage in the woods here; the man was taking advantage of the public's right to pick up to 1.5kg of mushrooms in most of the forest.

Luckily we didn't have to pick our food, but were served it in considerable style at the Montagu Arms hotel in the village of Beaulieu. Best known as the home of the National Motor Museum, it is now, according to hotel manager Phil Archer, a "food destination" thanks to the Montagu Arms' Michelin-starred restaurant.

The hotel is small, very cosy, very old-fashioned – and very expensive. The food lovers who come here, Archer said, are treating themselves. So it was mainly couples, rather than families like us, bringing two large teenage boys. They didn't join us for the Michelin-starred dinner. It would have been wasted on them – as it was, to some extent, on us. The Cornish lamb and escalope of seabass were terrific, but for our simpler tastes, it was the amazing cream tea and the breakfast that put the Montagu Arms on the map – every sausage, bacon slice, tomato and egg locally sourced and perfectly cooked.

Stay at The Montagu Arms, 01590 612324. Dinner, B&B, from £130 per person per night. Dinner in the Michelin-starred Terrace restaurant: mains £26-£30.